About GameSetWatch

GameSetWatch.com is the alt.video game weblog and sister site of Gamasutra.com. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and oft-ignored games from consoles old and new, as well as from the digital download, iOS, and indie spaces.

Even though you'll see a fair amount of cross-posting between GameSetWatch and big sister site Gamasutra nowadays - at least on the non-link 'opinion' and quirkier stuff - there's still plenty of original content on Gamasutra and sister sites like Game Career Guide of interest to you good folks.

This time around - interviews with the Valve folks behind Portal, a fun look at Super Mario Galaxy's gravity system, Tom Buscaglia on the symbiotic relationship between game developer and his trusty lawyer, and lots more - as follows:

- Still Alive: Kim Swift And Erik Wolpaw Talk Portal
"Kim Swift and Erik Wolpaw are the lead designer and lead writer of Valve's Portal, a game you may have heard of - and in this Gamasutra interview, they go into detail on the game's creation, director's commentary, and, uh, 'time to crate'."

- Game Law: Man's Best Friend Sometimes Bites
"Buscaglia's latest 'Game Law' column sees him suggesting that "just like a kid and a dog, every game studio should have its pet lawyer to keep it safe and secure" - contributing key training tips for both canine and human sides."

- Q&A: Taito's Fujita On Mobile Consolidation, iPod Hopes
"Following up on a recent interview, Gamasutra catches up with Taito U.S. rep Keiji Fujita to discuss the consolidating cellphone game market, Taito games on Apple's iPod hardware, and Square Enix publishing Taito DS games in the West."

- Games Demystified: Super Mario Galaxy
"Want to see how Mario Galaxy created its unique gravity-based physics effects for the in-game planets? Developer Alessi analyzes and reproduces the same concepts with a playable game prototype and source code."

- Student Postmortem: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
"An Edward Gorey-like, silent film-inspired art style and the looping of recorded game play mark the USC student game The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, and, in the latest feature for GameCareerGuide, the team exposes how the distinctive title blossomed in a university setting."

- Resolve Your Resolves
"In this in-depth technical article, Gruen & Story examine anti-aliasing in games, explaining how you can reduce 'jaggies' in your PC title, and save frame-rate, by using many less post-processing passes."

- China Angle: 'China Games And The Troubles'
"In Gamasutra's latest China Angle column, Frank Yu says that while China's online population is booming, the games industry is growing increasingly nervous about government crackdowns following the shuttering of online video sites, and looks at recent controversy over the Beijing Olympics website's co-option of some casual games."

- Educational Feature: The Fun Instinct
"Game designers need to have an intuitive sense of what is fun, and Spin Master lead designer Tim Lang says you don't have to be born with that trait -- it can be learned. In the latest feature for GameCareerGuide.com, Lang formulates a system for acquiring a fun instinct -- or nurturing ones that already exist."